DECEMBER 17, 2010

Montezemolo pitches for more spoils

At Ferrari's annual media lunch president Luca di Montezemolo fired another warning that the F1 teams will want a bigger slice of the sport's commercial revenues when it comes to negotiating a new Concorde Agreement - the document by which the sport is run - for 2013.

"We are at a crossroads," Montezemolo said. "We have F1 in our hearts and minds but we don't want to be in an F1 prison." He added that he could see three possible scenarios for the teams: 1) they stick with rights holders CVC Capital Partners, 2) they find new owners but stick with the same business model, 3) they break away and promote their own series like they do in the NBA. It was a condition of the first option, he said, that Bernie Ecclestone remains in charge.

Whenever Concorde negotiations are nigh, the threat of a breakaway series rears its head, most notably in 2008 when such a thing was actually announced on the eve of the British GP at Silverstone, but thus far is has always remained an empty one. On that occasion, Max Mosley backed down on his intended budget caps.

As he did last year, Montezemolo said that F1 should not price itself out of the market and alienate core fans. "My son can go around the world with his girlfriend for less than the price of two tickets to Monza," he said.

The Ferrari boss made it plain that the company was not behind the newly announced four cylinder 1.6-litre turbos for 2013 but said that Ferrari did not wish to rock the boat. "Personally I don't like it, it's too far," he said. "I agree on the need to cut costs but this "pauperistic" approach to F1 is not good. We want it to be associated with innovation, with pushing technology."

After a season in which Ferrari was at the heart of the Hockenheim team orders controversy, Montezemolo said that despite team orders being permitted once again in F1 after the latest meeting of the FIA World Motor Sports Council, his drivers would start on an equal footing in 2011 and would be allowed to race each other until one could no longer win the championship.